Making their mark 12,000 to 6,000 years ago Select the caption you wish to read from the index below or scroll down to read them all in turn Making their mark 1 - Microlith 2 - Replica arrow 3-8 - Adzes and axes 9 - Stone macehead Westward Ho! 10 - Flint core and blades 11 - Three microliths 12 - Backed blade 13 - Awl 14 - Flint flakes and blades 15-16 - Two cores 17 - Hazelnut shells 18 - Cattle jaw 22 - Cattle rib 26 - Cattle leg bone (humerus) 19-21, 24, 28-30 - Red deer antlers 31-32 - Red deer leg bone (tibia) 34 - Red deer leg bone (calcaneus) 37-38 - Red deer leg bone (humerus) 39-40 - Red deer pelvises 23 - Auroch rib 25 - Auroch leg bone (humerus) 27 - Auroch shoulder blade (scapula) 35-36 - Auroch leg bones (metapodials) 33 - Wolf leg bone (ulna) 41 - Human leg bone (femur) 42 - Bone awl 43 - Decorated pot sherd 44 - Two beaker pot sherds 45 - Grooved ware pot 46 - Bowl 47 - Bowl sherds 48-49 - Piercers 50 - Notch 51 - Scraper 52 - Polished flint axehead 53 - Flint knife with ground edge 54 - Punch or fire-lighter 55 - Chert core and flakes 56 - Saddle quern and grinding stone 57 - Replica sickle Early enclosure at Hembury 58 - Spelt grains 59 - Hazelnuts 60 - Pot sherd with charred food remains 61 - Charcoal 62 - Sickle 63 - Quern 64 - Pot 65 - Bowl 66 - Pot sherd 67-70 - Pot handles and lugs 71-73 - Pots made of Cornish clay 74 - Waste from flint working 75 - Flint core and blades 76 - Flint core and bladelets 77 - Flint tools 78 - Flint scraper 79 - Flint knife 80 - Flint awl 81 - Three beads 82-85 - Four axehead fragments 86 - Leaf-shaped arrowheads 87-89 - Leaf-shaped arrowheads 90-91 - Oblique arrowheads 92-93 - Transverse arrowheads 94-96 - Barbed and tanged arrowheads 97 - Leaf-shaped arrowhead with replica shaft 98 - Transverse arrowhead with replica shaft 99 - Bowl 100-107 - Cornish greenstone axeheads 108-109 - Making a polished axehead 110 - Triangular polished axehead 111 - Fragment of jadeite axe 112-115 - Stone axe-hammers 116 - Stone hammer 117-122 - Polished flint axeheads 123- Polished flint axehead in modern haft 124 - Hoard of scrap bronze 125 - Bronze spearhead 126 - Spearhead 127 - Spearhead 128 - Flint dagger 129 - Dirk 130 - Bronze dagger 131 - Bronze double axehead 132 - Bronze axehead 133 - Socketed axe with modern handle 134 - Flint axe 135-137 - Bronze flat axeheads 138 - Bronze axehead 139-143 - Bronze palstaves 144-148 - Bronze looped palstaves 149-150 - Socketed axeheads 151 - Native copper 152 - Chalcocite 153 - Cassiterite 154 - Galena 155 - Crucible 156 - Copper ingot 157 - Two tin ingots 158 - H-shaped tin ingot 159 - Mould fragments 160 - Mould for casting bronze rapiers 161 - Mould for casting a bronze rapier 162 - Hoard of bronze rapiers 1 - Microlith 6,000-10,000 years old From Westward Ho! This tiny, carefully shaped, flint was used as the barb for an arrow. All of the arrow’s components were skilfully made so they worked at maximum efficiency when it mattered. 2 - Replica arrow Modern replica of an arrow used 6,000-12,000 years ago This hunting weapon is made of flint, wood and feather, stuck together with wood ash or animal glue. It was a long task to make such weapons, but their effectiveness made it time well spent. It is likely that hunters stockpiled all the equipment they needed for a successful hunt. 3-8 - Adzes and axes 6,000-12,000 years old From near Stockland These tools were ideal for cutting and shaping wood. They are made from a flint-like stone, called chert. After roughly shaping into an adzehead, they were given a sharp, working edge by striking off flakes. The finished tools were then attached to wooden handles. 9 - Stone macehead 8,000-10,000 years old From near Cullompton A hole was drilled in this river pebble so that a wooden shaft could be attached. It could be a macehead, hammer or possibly the weight for a digging stick used to unearth edible roots or to dig animals out of burrows. Westward Ho! Melting ice sheets at the end of the ice ages led to rising sea levels that covered areas of coastline. At Westward Ho! In North Devon a drowned forest and peat are preserved below the low tide level. With the peat are animal bones and flint tools dating to the period after the ice ages. David Trapnell’s lifelong interest in Westward Ho! beach led him, and his daughter Marion, to collect artefacts from this site. Finds from the Trapnell Collection feature in this display. 10 - Flint core and blades 6,000-10,000 years old From Westward Ho! The early hunters at Westward Ho! made most of their weapons and tools from tiny flint blades. 11 - Three microliths 6,000-10,000 years old From Westward Ho! Microliths, literally meaning small stones, are tiny blades of flint and chert. They could be set into handles or shafts to make composite tools, like arrows, harpoons, knives and saws. 12 - Backed blade 6,000-10,000 years old From Westward Ho! A flint blade probably used as a small knife. One edge has been left sharp, while the other has been finely chipped to blunt or ‘back’ it. This process of shaping a flint tool is called retouch. 13 - Awl 6,000-10,000 years old Trapnell Collection, Westward Ho! This tool was probably used to puncture holes in hides, so they could be sewn together for clothes or to form shelters. 14 - Flint flakes and blades 6,000-10,000 years old From Westward Ho! The hundreds of waste flakes found on the beach show that people were making tools on site. 15-16 - Two cores 6,000-10,000 years old From Westward Ho! The scars indicate where blades have been struck off the core. 17 - Hazelnut shells 6,000-10,000 years old From Westward Ho! Plant remains have been preserved for thousands of years in the peat at Westward Ho! The types of plants found indicate fenland conditions. The quantity of hazelnuts found suggests they were an important food source. Cattle bones 2,500-4,500 years old From Westward Ho! These bones come from domesticated cattle rather than the large, wild cattle known as aurochs. These bones must be from a later phase of the site, probably Iron Age or Roman. 18 - Cattle jaw 22 - Cattle rib 26 - Cattle leg bone (humerus) Red deer antler and bones 6,000-10,000 years old From Westward Ho! Red deer were plentiful in Devon after the ice ages. They would have been one of the most important targets for hunters: their meat providing food, their hides clothing and their antlers essential material for making tools. 19-21, 24, 28-30 - Red deer antlers 31-32 - Red deer leg bone (tibia) 34 - Red deer leg bone (calcaneus) 37-38 - Red deer leg bone (humerus) 39-40 - Red deer pelvises Aurochs bones 6,000-10,000 years old Found at Westward Ho! Aurochs were huge wild oxen. Standing two metres (6 feet) high with large horns, they would make fearsome targets for a hunter. 23 - Auroch rib 25 - Auroch leg bone (humerus) 27 - Auroch shoulder blade (scapula) 35-36 - Auroch leg bones (metapodials) 33 - Wolf leg bone (ulna) 6,000-10,000 years old Trapnell Collection, Westward Ho! Wolves adapted well to life after the ice ages. They would have been quite common in Devon, competing with human hunters for their prey. Hunting dogs were probably bred from the cubs of captured wolves. 41 - Human leg bone (femur) 2,500-2,800 years old Trapnell Collection, Westward Ho! It is unusual to find ancient human bones on beaches. This one was probably washed from a burial which is now underwater. It was radiocarbon dated to much later than the ice ages. 42 - Bone awl 6,000-10,000 years old Trapnell Collection, Westward Ho! This piece of bone has been sharpened to make it into an awl, used to make holes in animal hides so that they could be stitched together into clothing. 43 - Decorated pot sherd 4,500-5,400 years old From Westward Ho! A sherd from the rim of a bowl decorated with fingernail impressions in a herringbone pattern. Tiny fragments of rock mixed in with the clay provide evidence that they were made from clay extracted near Dartmoor. On loan from Emily Trapnell. 44 - Two beaker pot sherds 4,000-4,200 years old Trapnell Collection, Westward Ho! These two sherds came from a pot called a beaker, which is particularly associated with the early Bronze Age and so is far later in date than much of the flint and bone at Westward Ho! 45 - Grooved ware pot 4,500-5,300 years old Found on Haldon Hill This pottery type, found across south-west England, is named after its grooved decoration. 46 - Bowl 4,700-5,000 years old From near Membury This may have held ceremonial offerings. The holes seem to be the remains of an ancient repair. 47 - Bowl sherds 4,500-5,400 years old From near Ottery St Mary The decoration was created by pressing cord into the wet clay. 48-49 - Piercers 4,200-6,000 years old Found at Salcombe Hill and Haldon Hill Used for piercing hide or boring through wood and bone. 50 - Notch 4,500-5,000 years old From North Devon A scraping tool for straightening wooden arrow shafts. 51 - Scraper 4,500-5,500 years old From Baggy Point, North Devon A chisel-shaped blade used to scrape hides or shape wood.